Icerya kumari (Rao)

Unruh, Corinne M. & Gullan, Penny J., 2008, Identification guide to species in the scale insect tribe Iceryini (Coccoidea: Monophlebidae), Zootaxa 1803 (1), pp. 1-106 : 85

Icerya kumari (Rao)

Crypticerya kumari Rao, 1951b: 152 .

Icerya kumari (Rao) ; Unruh & Gullan (2008: 41) .

Diagnosis (adapted from Rao, 1951b). Body of female brown to brick-red, dorsum covered with pale yellow waxy secretion; glassy filaments scattered; white pencils of wax projecting from anal region; no fluted ovisac present, but layer of thin wax present at posterior end. Antennae 9 segmented, each segment covered with hair-like setae. Legs as for tribe, claw digitules knobbed. Hair-like setae covering derm, longest forming marginal clusters. Open-centre pores present on dorsal surface, each with highly chitinized outer rim and 5 or 6 much reduced and widely spaced outer loculi. Simple multilocular pores scattered on dorsal surface with elongate [likely bilocular] centre and 6–8 outer loculi. Micropores scattered amongst other pores on dorsal surface with trilocular or quadrilocular centre and lacking outer loculi. Simple multilocular pores on venter of three types: (i) pores with trilocular to quadrilocular centre and 4–6 outer loculi, (ii) pores with elongate to bilocular centre and 4 outer loculi, and iii) pores with trilocular centre and 3 outer loculi [these pores with indistinctly separated centre]. Ovisac band absent. Marsupium absent. Cicatrix round, with sclerotized outer edge. Abdominal spiracles in 3 pairs. Anal tube and anal opening as for genus. Derm on both surfaces with highly chitinized "blotches" of cuticle.

Type data. INDIA: Mysore State , Gopalaswamy Hill, ex Darbha grass [= Desmostachya bipinnata ] .

Type material. Holotype: ad [?] ♀ ( INPC).

Taxonomic notes. Refer to the I. pilosa group for a discussion of similar species.

Rao (1951b: 152) described this species from a single specimen collected on grass. Rao stated that this species has resemblance to a young I. pilosa , but can be separated by the absence of an ovisac band, the presence of the chitinised rim of the ventral cicatrix and the shape of the disc pores. Unfortunately, we were unable to examine the holotype of this species, but strongly suspect that this is identical to I. pilosa . In the blurred photos in Rao’s manuscript, the vulvar opening is not apparent and the slightly chitinised rim of the cicatrix is characteristic of third-instar nymphs of the Iceryini .